Korean Job Discussion Forums

[jaj]

Apparently this is common here. Why bother have a dog if you're going to stop it from acting like one? Korean doctors are extremely "hands-on" in a human centipede kind of way...

watch your backs y'all

[fermentation]

Where did you hear this? This is the first time I've heard of it being "common." I personally haven't heard of it at all but I guess there are some people out there who do this.

[CrikeyKorea]

Apparently? According to whom?

[jaj]

I was doing a classroom exercise about a neighbor with a noisy dog and asked my students how they would handle the problem. My students all suggested the neighbor give their dog surgery to stop them from barking!
They insisted it was common. Sounds consistent with other medical practices here.

At any rate, found the below blog post for anyone who thinks I made this up!

http://savethebark.wordpress.com/about/

[northway]

Man, that's messed up. A dog without the ability to vocalize would hardly be a dog.

[Dave Chance]

Oh, it's true alright.

A couple of weeks ago after locking up my bicycle near a mountain I intended to hike, I heard a strange persistent rasping sound coming from the house behind me.

Lo and behold was the subject of myth, a dog whose vocal chords had magically been nixed!

Have to admit it was a lot more pleasant for me that way, 'tho yeah in some sense it just wasn't a dog no more.

[young_clinton]

It's cruel for the dog. Also declawing cats is very cruel too.

[NYC_Gal 2.0]

It is pretty common here. One of my students was telling me how cruel he thought his parents were for having it done to his dog. I had been telling them how we were training our dog to stop barking with a command. Still, he's a dog. He's just doing his job to tell us that someone's outside the apartment. I want those first few barks.

The local pet shop has a bunch of dogs. Half of them have had the vocal chord surgery. Hearing one of those dogs "bark" is one of the saddest things I could imagine.

[warmachinenkorea]

We have many dogs surrendered to the shelter in Daegu that have had this kind of surgery.

[Mix1]

"Wow"?
Where've you been? This has been around for years and is done in the US as well. Heck that's probably where Korean vets got the idea from.

Wonder if the dogs with surgery actually try barking more often, since the raspy choking sound isn't exactly the sound they are going for.

"I'm trying to sound mean and aggressive, but all that comes out is this soft throaty sound. Bummer ... might as well keep trying until it comes out right!"

[Mix1]

[BigBuds]

DE-barking dogs has been around for a long time.

My mum breeds dogs that's how I know about it. It's not just a Korean thing, it's been going on in western countries for 20 years or more. It's usually done to dogs who bark incessantly and is more common than you would think.

Only rarely does it completely remove a dogs ability to bark. It usually just makes a dog bark quieter or on some occasions raspy. If you ever come across a dog that sounds quieter than you would expect it to be, it's probably been de-barked.

[drydell]

In thirty something years I never came across this once living in "the west" . A few years in Korea and have seen it several times. I say it's done way more here.

[NYC_Gal 2.0]

I see plenty of them on a regular basis (just going to the local vet's or pet shop, as well as on daily walks) that can't even make more than a hoarse whisper, even though they are "barking." It's terrible.

[giraffe]

Yeah Debarking is horrible =(...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6fgssaxJBQ Doesnt sound like a dog anymore. and yes it happens in the western world tooo. Alot more than you think.